Effect of farrerol on the proliferation of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer by downregulating oncogenic genes with estrogen receptor response elements.

Abstract

e12541 Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignant tumor among women worldwide, the most common of which is estrogen receptor (ER) -positive BC. Farrerol, a noval estrogen-like chemicals, is closely associated with ER positive BC. In this study, we will explore the anticancer effect of farrerol on ER-positive BC and the detailed mechanism. Methods: Cloning formation assay and MTT assay were used to evaluate the effect of farrerol on proliferation ofcells. The affinity of farrerol, estrogen and tamoxifen with ER was tested by molecular docking technique. Point mutation was performed on the possible binding sites of ER according to the results of virtual docking, and Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR). ER response elements in BC cells with farrerol were evaluated by qPCR. Results: With the increased farrerol concentration, the number of cell clones formed gradually decreased and the volume of clones became smaller in the ER positive McF-7 cell group, while a completely opposite clones was observed in non- ER positive MDA-MB-231 cells. The proliferation inhibition rate of McF-7 cells in the 160 mol/L and 320 mol/L groups was 45.86% and 65.3% respectively, significantly higher than that of MDA-MB-231 and normal mammary epithelial cells (P < 0.05). Both molecular docking technique and SPR experiment showed that farrerol could bind to ER at different sites than estrogen binding. Fiarrerol effectively down-regulated the transcription of the oncogenes MYC and TFF1, and suppressed ER-positive BC. Conclusions: Farrerol has the opposite effect with estrogen, which inhibited the proliferation of ER-positive BC cells, and downregulated the expression of oncogenic genes with ER response elements in BC cells. Therefore, farrerol, as a natural ingredient, could be further developed and applied with its obvious inhibitory effect on ER-positive BC in the future.